Bryan police chief & mayor discuss public safety; Council OKs hiring third assistant chief

KBTX
By Donnie Tuggle
Published: Apr. 23, 2023 at 8:40 PM CST

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -Earlier this month at the request of Bryan Police Chief Eric Buske, the city council approved hiring a third assistant chief for the police department.

The position, which was eliminated in 2012, is being reinstated to accommodate the city’s growth.

City Council agendas show that city staff recommended the approval of the new position, stating that it would enable the Bryan Police Department to ensure effective management and supervision of all departmental functions.

According to US Census Data, the population of Bryan has been steadily rising, going from just over 76,000 in 2010 to an estimated 89,000 this year. City leaders anticipate that this growth will continue, which is why Police Chief Eric Buske believes it’s time to bring in more leadership positions to the department, starting with a third assistant chief.

“It just helps to have another senior leader,” Chief Buske said. “It’s someone that can handle some of the assignments. We do things that people don’t traditionally think about.”

The new assistant chief would take on more administrative roles, such as helping with the department’s new records management systems and grant writing.

“There are just lots of projects that need to be done. They’re kind of classic administrative duties, but there are enough of them that we feel that we can utilize and should utilize a third assistant chief to help us get them done,” said Chief Buske.

As the city of Bryan continues to experience growth and welcomes new businesses and developments in its downtown and midtown areas, Mayor Bobby Gutierrez emphasizes that public safety remains a top priority on the council’s agenda.

“Whenever you’re bringing in any kind of economic development, the first thing these companies look for is the safety of their people that are going to potentially work for them,” Mayor Gutierrez said. “Their families that are going to be moving down want to know that they’re going to feel safe. They want to know they’re going to have things to do, places to go.”

Mayor Gutierrez says public safety is also a major part of the city’s comprehensive plans.

“Part of our strategic plans is to make sure that our citizens and our visitors are safe here in our community,” said Gutierrez.

Our policemen, they do a job that is a thankless job. If you look at different police departments across the country, and the state of our country right now I think Bryan is an example of we actually love our police, we actually love our first responders and we will do everything we can to not only protect them, keep them safe because we know that’s what they’re doing for us,” Mayor Gutierrez said. “We owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude. We owe them that thank you when we see them, the things that they do you know we didn’t sign up for it. That’s not what we do but they do that out of just selfless service.”

Chief Buske also expressed the importance of promoting from within the department.

“The transition will be we’ll figure out who we’ll put in that position in the next couple of weeks and then we’ll figure out exactly how we’re going to divide up labor,” said Buske. “We have a really good pool of Lieutenants so whoever we choose is going to do a great job for us.”

“We have a great set of Lieutenants and anyone one of them could do the job. It will be my challenge to figure out which one will do it best,” Chief Buske Said

The addition of the new assistant chief is not part of this year’s budget, so the council will be making a budget amendment in the future.

The College Station Police Department also has three assistant chiefs on their force, so the move by Bryan is in line with neighboring law enforcement agencies.